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May 19.10: What’s wrong with Wright?/Adding tonight’s lineup.

Pedro Martinez once told me one of his greatest weapons as a pitcher is the fear he instilled in the batter’s mind about being hit.

“If the batter is afraid of being hit, then I can pitch him any way I want,’’ Martinez said.

That’s the way it seems these days for David Wright even though he will never admit it. That’s all right, because what the mouth won’t say body language does, and there have been numerous times when Wright bails out.

We see him more turning away from the inside fastball rather than turning on it and ripping it to left. Once a pitcher knows he has the inside half of the plate, there’s no reason to go to the outside.

The Matt Cain beaning last season has had a residual effect of Wright, and it mostly is mental, which leads to bad physical habits.

I’ve seen Wright pull off pitches he used to hammer, and I see him get too anxious when he does get a ball on the outside half and middle. His swing is long with a noticeable uppercut.

Statistically, Wright has made enough contact to be on a pace to hit 32 homers and drive in 105 runs. He’s also on pace to strike out 223 times and hit for a .262, some 43 points below his career average.

Those aren’t the results Wright is seeking.

“If you don’t see the results a lot, you start pressing a little bit,’’ Wright said last night after his three strikeout game in Atlanta. “It’s tough when somebody is out there playing as poorly as I am right now, costing us both offensively and defensively.’’

Wright was having an off-year in 2009 even before the beaning, which some of it being written off as adjusting to the new stadium and him being on an island in the line-up. There was no Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado or Jose Reyes for much of this year. There’s no Beltran this year, Jason Bay has done nothing to protect Wright and Reyes hasn’t been on his game. The situations are very similar, as are the results.

Wright called baseball a “humbling” game and right now the man is humbled.

It all boils down to this, that regardless of the psychological and statistical theories, if Wright is the player the Mets and he believes himself to be, things have to dramatically change. These reasons, or excuses, for him not hitting must be pushed aside.

It could start with something small, like hitting a sacrifice fly instead of striking out.

i have to agree with all the above. its the Mike Piazza syndrome.
No one is performing and they all expect Wright to carry the team and its a heavy burden.
The same exact thing happened to Piazza.
One thing david showed class, made no excuses .. said in so many words. i am sucking and its no ones fault but mine.

JD: i think the problem we have with this team is we have many bats and not any one of them is hot. if we had 2 hot bats happen at once it would turn everything around.
between davis and carter to prove themselves on a team by being the bats is a lot of pressure.
maybe they all need to go out on a fishing trip together or some other bonding event other than baseball.

the HR mentality is detrimental to the game. many people see the HR as the great equalizer. give me a rally any day. talk about getting in the pitchers head.
look we had back to back HRs and did that do anything? not always the pitcher still threw well.
now have 5 guys get on base one after the other and watch the pitcher go nuts.

15. Frenchy requested the rest. Wright did not. I am not sure that Wright is where Delgado got the sit down. But i have to say if we compared how long it took manuel to sit delgado and how long before he sat wright. we would see he had more faith in a non fielding non hitting 1st baseman than a 3rd baseman in a slump who missed one play and hasnt hit HRs but has gotten on base and driven in runs. its a slump but at least he’s hitting the ball hard. oh well.. too late now.. we will see tonights game how many balls roll by 3rd base. This should be good.

M&M are grasping at straws. No one is hitting well. But you do not take out a great defensive player and put in a mediocre at best player with a bat that is just as quiet.
I dont get the logic. I only understand it if Wright asked for the day off.
But hey its his team to manage he isnt gettin fired though others have..for far less.

(12) There was something to be gained from playing Beltran in September: A new contract.

While it’s convenient to blame the beleaguered Mets medical staff as well as Beltran for having surgery on his own in January, let’s not lose sight of what all of this amounts to: A pissing match between Boras and Jeffie. I imagine if Omar were not in the equation, the Wilpons would still not be doing business with Boras, and don’t think the SuperAgent doesn’t wake up every morning thinking of this.

Finally, I hate to say these words on this blog, but “check the stats” and you’ll see that Wright’s strikeouts shot up _before_ he was beaned. His batting average has been most affected, post-beaning — but his strikeouts were up months before it happened.